Verner Panton (1926-1998). Design Lesson 1.3

Continuing on History of Design I would like to talk about a very unique, incredible designer: Vermer Panton. I am not surprise he is also Danish. Verner was born on Fünen in 1926. His style and fascination for Pop Art and futuristics lines stood him apart form the organic lines Denmark design was famous for. What really made a different in Verner work was working for Arne Jacobsen during 1950-1952, assisting the Ant Chair project. After leaving Jacobsen, Verner spend time traveling across Europe looking for manufacturers, meeting other designers and freelancing on the road on a Volkswagen van that he customized as an studio. It is not until the production of the Cone Chair in 1959 that Verner truly finds a voice of his own. The presentation of the Cone Chair on a store front in NY was controversial, police had to removed the exhibition that showed the chairs with naked mannequins and models. After setting apart as a visionary designer ,Verner is granted license to experiment. It is not until the 67′ that Verner conceived the Panton Chair, the first chair made out of a single piece of plastic. Verner won numerous awards with the Panton Chair but the political situation with the post-Vietnam era changed the preferences for design at the time and he started to loose centre of the design world. It is not until the 90′ that the pPanton Chair comes back to be the centre of design again and started to get feature on cover magazines and winning awards. He dies in Copenhagen, after living many years in Switzerland, on September 17, 1998.

Vermer Panton

The Cone Chair

The Panton Chair

You can appreciate the beautiful lines of the Panton Chair in this photo